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Why is Global Public Health Informatics important to public health?

Global health informatics has become increasingly important to patient data and health security.

In a world where disease has no borders and access to information -- particularly health information --, can mean the difference between life and death, the integration of patient data, information science applications, and the expertise of health professionals has created a global move towards providing higher quality patient care through better management and access to information. As a result, global public health informatics has become increasingly important to health security, providing healthcare practitioners and decision makers access to critical health information by using best practices and principles in informatics science to improve global public health practice, research, and learning. Advances in this field have created unprecedented opportunities to transform public health practice and improve health outcomes through information systems that support surveillance, epidemiology, and integrated delivery of services.

An effective public health information system improves disease detection and response and reduces illness and death through:

Accurate, timely, and complete information in (or near) real-time;

Improved analysis, reporting, and dissemination of data; and

Extraction and exchange of data from various sources through integrated information systems